


The total agony of being in love

by the_dutchman_2015



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Nudity, References to Depression, friends having fun
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-01-06 06:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18382739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_dutchman_2015/pseuds/the_dutchman_2015
Summary: Being a teenager in college is already hard enough. but when love is involved it only gets worse. or does it get better?





	1. Starting College

**Author's Note:**

> I love the Maze Runner movies. I have a lot of ships in mind that i like to play with. in this fic I will have a lot of love but also heartbreak. also if I use a ship you dont like dont worry, I will use characters in more then one ship. This will be my first fanfic and English is not my first lenguage. So feedback will be apriciated. And yes the titel is a reference to Love Actually.  
> This might be a long story as i have storylines in mind for all characters. some are bigger then other but all of them have storylines.

Thomas is driving towards his dorm at his new college. He will be starting his first year soon. He was smart enough to go to University, but he decided that college was good enough. After all you don't have to go to University to become an architect. It has been Thomas’s dream to become an architect since he was 5 years old. His dad had bought him a Lego set and he loved it. he liked nothing more than to build. So, when he graduated from High school the choice was easy. He was going to go to the best school for architect student there is to find. It is called Gladers State College, but everyone just calls it The Glade.

As Thomas arrives at the dorm buildings, he parks his car and steps out. he looks around for a moment. The dorms are divided into two buildings on either side of courtyard. The building on the left had a big A on it and the one on the right a B. In the middle at the back of the courtyard was a smaller building that was known as the administrative office. Looking around, Thomas could see other student walking around the courtyard, and he noticed that the boys all went to the A building and the girls went to the B building.

Thomas grabs his bags and starts walking toward the administrative building. When he enters, he walks up to the desk. Behind the desk is a nice-looking woman who is typing something on the computer. As he walks up the woman looks up to meet him.

"Welcome to the Gladers State College dormitories. What is your name?" the woman said.

"My name is Thomas Cooper. I am a first-year student." he said.

The woman typed something in the computer and reads something. then she turns back to Thomas.

"I see. I have your file here. Your room will be in the A building, that is the boy’s dormitory the B building is for the girls. Your room is on the second floor, room A25." she said.

"Thank you, I will bring my bag to my room then." Thomas said.

The woman gives him the key to his room and he walks out. He goes to the A building and then up to the second floor. As he walks through the hallway, he looks for room A25. When he finds the room, he gets his key and opens the door. as he walks in, he takes a look around the room. It is just a small room with two bed, two closets and two desks on either side of the room. He freezes when he sees someone else on one of the beds. "I am sorry, I didn't know someone was in here." he said. The boy on the bed looks up from his book and looks at Thomas. The boy stands up from his bed and now Thomas can get a good view of him. He is a bit taller than Thomas and rather muscular. He has short blond hair and when he walks up to Thomas, he notices he has slight limp.

"So, you are the new greenie I get to share a room with?" the blond said. Thomas immediately notices his British accent. "Name's Newt. Welcome to The Glade." he said and he reaches out a hand to shake Thomas's.

"I am Thomas." Thomas said and he takes Newt's hand and shakes it. "What's a greenie?"

"Greenie is the term we use for the newbies here in The Glade. Ya know, still green behind the ears." Newt said with a smile on his face. "So, I already have my side which means the other bed is yours. Bathroom is at the end of the hallway and the living room and kitchen are in the front. You must have past them coming up here." 

After Newt pointed everything out, he goes back to lie down on his bed. Thomas goes to his own bed and puts his bags on top of it. Then he looks back at Newt.

“So, I take you are not a first year then?” He asked.

Newt laughs for a moment. “No, I am not a first year. I am a second year as was my previous roommate, but he cranked out.” He said.

“Cranked out?” Thomas asked with a confused look on his face.

“You really are new, aren’t ya? When people drop out, we call them cranks. Most of them are just cranky that they fail because they party to much.” Newt said.

“Do you party a lot?” Thomas asked.

“Sometimes. Me and my friends often go to this place called The Maze. It’s a nice place just a few blocks away from here. Every Saturday they have this great bonfire. It’s really fun there. You should come sometime.” Newt said.

“I would love to, Thanks for inviting me.” Thomas said.

“No Problem. Ya know you can come with me tonight. I will introduce you to them. That way you already have a few friends around here.” Newt said. “I go over there in an hour or so. When you finish unpacking, we can go together.”

“That would be great, thanks. You really are a nice guy. I am lucky with a roommate like you.” Thomas said while smiling.

Newt Smiles back at Thomas. “Yeah you are lucky.” He said.

After their little introduction Newt went back to reading his book and Thomas started unpacking his bags. When Thomas was done, he and Newt went out and drove over to The Maze. When they entered Thomas could see that it was quite popular with the college students as there were quite a few of them around. Newt walked up to a group at a table in the back and Thomas followed him. At the table were mostly boys. Newt introduced all of them to Thomas.

First was Minho. A muscled Asian guy with short black hair. He is a junior who loves sports. Next to him was Brenda. A pretty girl with short brown hair. She looks quite tough though. She is also a junior. She had also brought her roommate who was also a first year. She was called Teresa. A thin girl with pale skin and black hair. She was a bit shy but also looked quite tough. Next to her was Gally. A big angry looking guy with quite a big nose dirty blond hair. He is a sophomore. Then there is Alby. A black guy with short-cropped hair and quite a bit of muscle on him. Alby is the oldest of the and the only senior. The boy next to him is Winston. He is a brown-skinned boy with black hair and dark eyes. He is also a junior. At the and is Frypan. A stocky boy with dark skin and short black hair. He is actually called Siggy, but everyone calls him Frypan because he loves to cook and he prefers it that way. Frypan was invited by Winston for the same reason that Thomas and Teresa were invited.

When all the introductions are over Newt and Thomas grab a chair and join the group. There is a lot of talking and joking around and everyone is having fun. Of course, the three freshmen are questioned a lot, but they do feel accepted into the group right away. Even though it is a Monday nobody cares about the time because school doesn’t start for another week.

At the end of the night it is 2 am before Newt and Thomas make their way back to their room. Both are exhausted after a fun night out and they don’t talk much when they arrive. Both just go to bed and fall asleep almost immediately.

When Thomas wakes up the next morning, he notices that Newt is already gone. As he had just met him, he doesn’t pay much attention to it and just gets ready for the day. He needs to get his schedule at the campus today and he wants to look around to see if he can find a job somewhere.

First, he goes to campus to get his schedule. He is going to major in architecture so most of his classes have to do with building structures and the laws to follow while doing so. He sees that he does have some free time during the week so he can easily fit in a job. He still has no idea what is even around here, so he starts to drive around the neighborhood to see what is around. When he comes across a bookstore, he sees Newt behind the cash register helping some customers. So that’s why he was already done. He has a job here. “maybe I can get a discount on some of my books from him.” Thomas thinks. He keeps on driving until he arrives at The Maze again. He decides to go in for a drink and maybe see if they have a job for him.

When he walks inside, he looks around and sees that its still pretty busy this early in the day. But none of the people he met yesterday are here. He then walks up to the counter and the girl behind it looks at him.

“Oh, hey Teresa. I didn’t see you here. So, you work here?” Thomas asked.

The girl behind the counters starts laughing for a moment before she answers. “I’m not Teresa. My name is Rachel, Teresa is my twin sister, so it is a common mistake. And yes, I work here, what can I get you?” she asked.

“Oh, I am sorry I didn’t know. Can I get a coffee please and do you happen to have a job opening here?” Thomas asked.

Rachels laughs again. “as I said it’s a common mistake, no big deal. The coffee I can get for you. As for the job opening you have to talk to the manager Marcus. I will get him for you.” She said.

Thomas looks at Rachel when she goes into the back for a moment. When she comes back, she starts on making the coffee. “He will be with you in a moment. You can take a seat while you wait.” Rachel said.

Thomas grabs the coffee and pays for it. “thanks.” he said and then he goes to take a seat.

While he is drinking his coffee, a man is coming out of the back and takes a seat across from Thomas. Marcus is a quite eccentric man with blond hair and black eye shadow. On his hands he has a few rings.

“So, Rachel told me you are looking for a job?” Marcus asked.

“Yeah, I want to earn some extra money and I was here yesterday and it looks really nice it. I would love to work here.” Thomas said.

“Well, I could still use someone. Do you have any work experience?” Marcus asked.

“Uhm not really. The only job I had so far was a paper route.” Thomas said a bit hesitantly.

Marcus smiles for a moment. “No problem. You can learn while you work here. So, you would earn the minimum wage and I need you to be able to work in the evenings and in the weekend as well for the rest of the week if you let me know your schedule for school we can plan your work hours around that.” Marcus said.

Thomas looks a bit surprised at how easy that was. “That won’t be a problem. Thank you. When can I start?” he asked.

“Do you have your schedule with you?” Marcus asked. “If you do, we can start planning your shifts right now and you can start as soon as possible.”

“That would be amazing. Classes won’t start until next week so this week I have time for a job and I do have my schedule with me.” Thomas said almost too excited.

After they looked at the schedule together, they make a planning for the next two weeks. Thomas’s first shift is already planned the same evening at six. When they are done Marcus goes back to the back after he talked to Rachel for a moment. Thomas finishes his coffee and then he goes back to the dorm. When he enters his room, he sees that Newt is also home again. Newt was apparently mid dressing because he just buckled his pants and has no shirt on. Thomas immediately embarrassed looks away and wants to close the door again when Newt stops him.

“You don’t have to be embarrassed.” Newt said. “we are roommates. Its only a mater of time before we see each other naked, it happens. There is no shame in that. When we catch the other having sex, now that is a reason to be embarrassed, but we will see what happens then.”

Thomas doesn’t really know if he should be laughing or be concerned about his attitude at seeing each other naked or even catching each other having sex. But he decides to enter the room anyway and closes the door behind him.

“So, you just came home from work?” Thomas asked.

“yeah, I did.” Newt said a bit confused. “how did you know?”

“I saw you at the book shop while I was driving around looking for a place for a job of my own.” Thomas said.

“Oh good, I was afraid you were stalking me.” Newt said with a smile on his face. “So, did you find a job?”

“Yeah, I have actually.” Thomas said. “I start tonight at six at The Maze.”

Newt looks a bit surprised. “Bloody hell that’s fast. You only arrived yesterday.” He said. “well done. And of course your roommate gets a discount on drinks, right?”

Thomas laughs at that. “only if Marcus is cool with that and if your roommate gets a discount on books because those schoolbooks are quite expensive.” He said.

Newt starts laughing at that. “That’s a deal.” He said. “I got my own books at a discount as well. One of the perks of working in a book store.”

Thomas and Newt keep on talking about their jobs and school for a while until Thomas has to go to The Maze to start his first day there.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Chuck is not here. He is not in college yet. He will come around at some point. As will a lot of the other (minor) characters. But this chapter was a small introduction to some of the main character in this story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think.  
> 


	2. First day at work

When Thomas arrives at The Maze at 5:50 pm he goes to counter where he sees another girl standing there. He walks up to her and she looks up to him. She has fair skin that is well taken care of. Hazel eyes and long brown hair. She smiles at Thomas.

“I am starting my first shift here today.” Thomas said a bit hesitantly.

“Ah, so you must be Thomas then.” The girl said. “Marcus told me about you. I will be training you today. My name is Beth. When you go in the back you can find some work clothes. Get a change and when you come out here, we will start. It’s not busy at the moment so that should be ok.”

Thomas smiles at her for a moment. She seems very nice. He walks in the back and finds some work clothes in his size. He changes and puts his stuff away before he walks out again. Beth is helping a customer but when she is done, she turns to Thomas.

“Good you are done. So, you will be waitering today. Do you know what you need to do?” Beth asked.

“I think I do.” Thomas said hesitantly. “I just have to take the orders from the customers and bring them their orders when they are done.”

Beth nods. “Yes, it’s very simple but can be challenging when it gets busy, so it is a good skill to learn first before you learn how to make al the drinks.” She said.

Thomas smiles at her and grabs a notebook and a tray and looks around to see if there are customers to serve. It’s not busy at the moment. Just a few tables with people chatting. Then someone waves at Thomas and he goes over to them. At the table are 2 guys chatting to each other about school and stuff. When Thomas walks up to them the guys look at him.

“What can I do for you today?” Thomas asked.

“We would like to order two more coffees please.” One of the guys said.

Thomas writes two coffee down in the notebook and looks at the guys again. “Anything else?” He asked.

“No, that’s all.” The guy said.

Thomas give a gentle nod and then walks back to the counter to tell Beth the order. She goes on making them and when they are done Thomas walks back over to the guys to give them their coffee. When he is back at the counter to wait for another costumer Beth starts to talk to him.

“Your first customers. Well done.” She said with a smile. “Because it’s not busy yet I wanted to show you where everything is and how the coffee machine works. Then you know the basics and you will be able to make some of the orders yourself when it gets busy.”

Thomas nods at her and he listens to everything she says trying to remember it all. The coffee machine is Tricky as there are quite a few options to choose from, but he things he will get the hang of it. They get interrupted a few times when Thomas needs to attend to a customer, but Beth manages to show him the most part of where everything is. At around 8 pm he is 2 hours into his shift and it’s going well. Of course, it’s not busy yet, but still Thomas feels good about himself. Until the doors open and he sees all his friends walk in. Newt greets him with a smile that makes Thomas a little nervous. He feels like Newt is up to something. He doesn’t have to wait to long to figure out what. Thomas walks up to his friends to take their order.

“What can I get you guys?” Thomas asked.

Newt looks at him and he is still smiling making Thomas even more nervous.

“For starters Minho wants a cappuccino with milk but no sugar. Brenda would like a café latte with extra sugar. Gally just wants a black coffee. Frypan and Winston both want a café mocha, but for frypan a large one. Alby wants an espresso and Teresa wants a latte macchiato. And I would like an americano please.” Newt said with an even bigger smile on his face. The other are trying to keep themselves from laughing but they don’t do good job. Except for Gally but Thomas thinks he is incapable of laughing or even smiling.

“Yesterday you all ordered just regular coffee.” Thomas said. “You’re doing this just because it’s my first day, right?”

Now Minho can’t hold back his laughter anymore. “Of course, we do.” Minho said through his laughter. “What else would you expect from your friends?”

Newt smiles at Thomas again. Only this time it’s more friendly. “Minho did the same to me when I started at the bookstore.” Newt said. “He asked me for this really rare and hard to find book, but when I did manage to find it, he didn’t even buy it.”

Minho now look at Newt. “That book costs $5000 what did you expect?” He said insulted. The rest starts laughing again.

Thomas still does his job and writes everything down in his notebook and walks back to the counter. Bath looks at him with a sympathetic smile as he gives her the order.

“Those are your friends I guess?” She asked. “don’t worry everyone gets that. My friends did the same when I started working here. And be glad your friends are mostly guys. Girls tend to have an even more difficult taste.”

Thomas smiles at her thanking her for encouraging him. After all the dinks are done, Thomas walks back to the table. Newt is already smiling at him again and so are the rest. Thomas imagines that they are just waiting for him to make a mistake so they can ridicule him for it, but he already thought of that. That is why he wrote their names next to all the orders so he wouldn’t forget who ordered what. When he gives everyone their drinks without making a mistake, they look impressed. Thomas waits or a moment until everyone tasted their drink.

“Wow Thomas, an order like this on your first day and not missing a single beat. I am impressed.” Brenda said smiling at Thomas.

“Bloody hell man. You really did a good job. Even remembering who order what. Nicely done.” Newt said while taking another sip of his drink.

Thomas smiles at them and then leaves to help another customer. He feels proud of himself t getting it all right, but he feels even better at the fact that his friends did this because they think of him as part of the group already. He only arrived here yesterday, and he already made a few friends. He couldn’t be happier at this moment in time.

He finishes his shift at 10 pm. Marcus thought that a 4-hour shift for your first day was long enough. He goes in the back and changes again. Beth told him to take the clothes home and a few more pairs so he didn’t have to change here all the time. He wished everyone good night and went home.

When he entered his room, Newt was lying on his bed reading a book again. When he hears Thomas come in, he looks up at him.

“So, how was your first day?” he asked.

“It was good.” Thomas said, now smiling mischievously himself. “There was just did one group that was really annoying. They all order something different and with special requests as well. Bunch of idiots.”

Thomas can’t hold in his laughter when he sees the hurt expression on Newts face.

“Just trying to be nice ya know. Inviting you to meet my friends and getting them to accept you into their group and then you call us idiots.” Newt said trying to sound overly insulted. “Well, I guess we The Maze won’t be much fun anymore with you working there.”

Newt and Thomas look at each other and then start laughing together.

“It was fun though making sure I got the order right.” Thomas said. “I even wrote down your names to make sure I gave everyone the right one.”

Newts eyes grow big for a moment. “So, you didn’t remember. You just cheated.” Newt said smiling again.

Thomas just looks smug at Newt. “Of course I did. You guys thought you could get me, I just needed to prove that you couldn’t.” He said.

They both start laughing again. Newt nods at him and admits the he got them. Thomas then starts to put his work clothes in his closet and Newt goes back to his book. When Thomas goes to his bad to lie down himself, he looks at Newt again.

“I do want to thank you though.” He said. “For inviting me. I thought it would be harder to make new friends here, but you made it easy.”

Newt puts his book down again. “Any time mate.” He said smiling. “I know they can be a bunch of idiots sometimes but when you need them, they will be there for you. Especially Minho.”

Newt seems to look a bit sad when he says that. Thomas wonders what Minho had done for him to say that, but he reminds himself that he only knows Newt for 2 days. Even though Newt considers him a friend he doesn’t want to push it. He decides to let it go.

The rest of the week goes by smoothly. Thomas goes to work at The Maze and Newt goes to the bookstore. When the come back to their room after the day they talk a lot about school and where they came from. Newt tells Thomas that he and his family moved from England to America about three ago. Which was quite an adjustment for him. He had a hard time leaving everyone behind and starting a new. It was even harder for his sister Sonya who was 12 at the time. Luckily, they both managed to get better and make new friends. Newt tells me that Minho was his first friend here and that he helped him through a tough time. It does seem like Newt is holding back something, but Thomas doesn’t want to pry.

Thomas tells Newt about his family as well. That his mom is a scientist and his dad is a policeman. Not very fun when your dad threatens to arrest you when you are home beyond curfew. He also tells Newt about his little brother Chuck who is just starting high school next week. Thomas hopes the he will be ok now that he doesn’t have his big brother around.

On Saturday both Thomas and Newt are free. The rest of the group were busy with other stuff, so they decided to spend the day with just the two of them. Newt shows Thomas around for a bit. They stop at an ice cream parlor to get some ice cream together and then they sit around just talking again. Until Newt realizes something.

“Hey Thomas, tonight is another bonfire at The Maze. We are all going there to drink and have fun. You should come too.” Newt said excitedly.

Thomas thinks for a moment. He has noting to do on Sunday so why not. “Yeah, sure. Sounds fun.”

Newt Smiles at him. “Great, we will go there around 8.”

They finish their ice cream and go back to their room. Newt wants to change before they go to the bonfire. As Newt doesn’t have a problem if his roommate sees him naked, he just changes in his room while Thomas is there. Although he keeps his boxers on all the rest comes off. Thomas can’t seem to keep himself from looking. Newt looks really muscular and quite handsome as well. Thomas thinks. Then he mentally slaps himself for looking at his roommate and he looks away again. When Newt is done, they are ready to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make Sonya Newt's younger sister so i had to make her younger. she is only in high school, but don't worry you will see her. i de have some interesting storyline for her as wel. i just need to figure out how i am going to implement it in this story. as always feedback is apreciated.


	3. Bonfire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 chapters in 1 day? i am on a roll. Don't get used to it though. I am rolling out chapters now that i have time, but this won't be the case all the time. hopfully you will forgive me for that.

While Thomas and Newt are walking towards The Maze. (Newt insisted on waling instead of driving for some reason.) Thomas is still trying to figure out where this bonfire would be. He can’t think of an outdoors at The Maze, and he has been working there for about a week now.

When they arrive at The Maze, Thomas can hear the sounds of people talking already. Newt leads the way towards The Maze, but instead of going inside he walks through an alleyway next to the café. Around the back they find a gate to an open area behind café. When Newt opens the gate Thomas can see a big pile of wood already in the middle ready to be lit. There are already a lot of other students around and he can see all his friends there already. There are also a lot of students he doesn’t know yet. Waling around he notices that the students are all mostly packed into groups of their own. One group in particular catches his eye. He can see Gally in the middle of a group of other students who all look quite tough of their own. He can’t hear what Gally is saying, but he seems to be wound up about something.

Newt doesn’t seem to pay attention to any of this as he just walks straight to the rest of the group. They all cheer loudly when Thomas and Newt arrive. And they arrived just in time apparently because as soon as they stand with the group a door opens and Marcus comes outside with a burning torch in his hand.

“Tonight, will be the first bonfire of this year! Let us have a party until the fire dies!” He shouts.

As soon as he said that everyone starts cheering and Marcus throws the torch onto the pile of wood which immediately catches fire, and everyone cheers even louder. Some of the students grab instruments to start playing some music. Everyone is very hyped up right away. People start dancing and having fun all around. This looks like it’s going to be a great party.

Marcus looks over at Thomas and waves at him with a big smile on his face. Thomas waves back at him, but he doesn’t have time to go over to him as the rest of the pulls him in to start dancing and have fun with them.

As the party is going on for some time, (Thomas doesn’t even know what time it is.) people are sitting down to have a rest from partying and they start talking about stuff. Thomas and the rest of the group also sits down for a breather, when Minho starts talking.

“So, greenies, you haven’t told us what you are majoring in yet. Let’s hear it. Teresa, you start.” Minho said.

Teresa looks a bit taken of guard. “Uhm, yeah sure. I am going to major in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.” She said.

Everyone nods and then turn their attention to Frypan. Who looks at them like they should already know. “I am majoring in Cooking and Related Culinary Arts of course.” He said while smiling. Everyone nods. Of course, he would do that.

Then they all look at Thomas. “I will major in Architecture. I love building and designing.” He said. “What about you guys? What do you major in?”

One by one they all answer.

“Psychology.” Newt said.

“Sports and Exercise.” Minho said.

“Criminal Justice and Police Science.” Brenda said with a big smirk on her face.

“Zoology and Animal Biology.” Winston said.

“Military Science and Operation. I want to be in the army.” Alby said.

Thomas looks around. “That is quite a wide range of majors. How do you know each other?” He asked.

“Most of us are paired up as roommates, and the rest we met either before college or during these parties.” Minho said.

They keep talking about the different majors and why they chose them, but Thomas notices that Newt has gone quiet.

“Are you okay?” Thomas asked.

Newt looks up at him as if he just woke up from a dream or something. “Yeah, I am fine. Just thinking.” He said. “Hey, you want to grab something to drink?”

Thomas nods and they walk over to the table with the drinks. Thomas sees that all of the drinks are just put in jars instead of bottles or glasses. Newt grabs one and walks over to a log a bit away from the rest of the party goers. Thomas sees that he is limping a bit more then normal.

“Quite the first week eh, Greenie?” Newt said when they sat down against the log.

Thomas nods. “Yeah, a lot has happened already, and it’s only been a week, and school hasn’t even started yet.”

Newt laughs for a moment and then he hands Thomas the drink. “Here, puts some hair on your chest.”

Thomas takes the drink and takes a sip. It tastes horrible and it’s very strong. He spits it out almost immediately. “Oh my god, what is that?” He asked.

Newt laughs at him while he takes the drink back and takes a sip himself without even flinching. “I don’t even know. It’s Gally’s recipe. It’s his trait secret.” He said smiling. “it’s quite strong. That is why I insisted on walking.”

“So, it’s Moonshine?” Thomas asked in disbelief. “But most of the people here are underage.”

“That is true. That’s why we only drink it here. Marcus doesn’t care about it. He just enjoys the parties. Sometimes he brinks a drink in as well, but you better avoid that. I have seen people trip badly after they drank that shit.” Newt explains.

Thomas is still a bit confused, but if nobody cares about it and they have been doing it for years without being caught it can’t be that big of a problem. Then Thomas remembers that Newt didn’t say why he chose Psychology as his major.

“So, Newt, you went quiet out there when people started talking about why they chose their majors. Why did you choose Psychology?” Thomas asked.

Newt looks a bit taken aback by the question but decides to answer anyway. “I told you about the time that I came here before I met Minho. I was down all the time and I didn’t even know why. I tried to get better, but somehow that wasn’t possible. It became really bad at some point.” Newt said. He looks really sad when he talks about this and Thomas now understands why he doesn’t want to talk about it with everyone around.

“Does that have something to do with your limp?” Thomas asked carefully, hoping he didn’t cross a line. Newt looks up at him with a sad and surprised expression on his face.

“So, you noticed my limp eh.” Newt said. “It is related, but I don’t want to talk about it. The fact is that I was in a bad place and I couldn’t just get out. I want to help people who go through the same thing because know how it feels. That is why I chose psychology.”

Thomas is curious about the story about his limp, but he doesn’t want to overstep, so he decides to drop it. The mood now changed between them to a sad one. Newt then gets up and decides he doesn’t want that. “All right that’s enough questions for one night. Come on, let’s get back to the group” he said.

Thomas nods and gets up too. They start walking back to the group, but when they pass the group that Gally is in someone gets thrown into Thomas by Gally, almost knocking him over. “Gally is on the wrestling team and he like to wrestle people at these parties to see who can hold out the longest.” Newt said.

As Thomas gets back up Gally looks at him. “What do you say Greenie? Wanna see what you are made of?” Gally asked. As soon as he said that everyone else around him starts chanting. “Greenie, Greenie, Greenie.” Thomas looks around for a moment. Minho and the others have noticed the cheering as well and came over to have a look Thomas agrees and gives a nod to Gally and steps into the ring that has been drawn on the ground. As he does, everyone starts cheering.

“Okay, so the rules are simple. I try to push you out of the circle, you try to last more then 5 seconds.” Gally said with a smirk on his face. Who knew he could smile. Or at least something that resembles a smile. The rest laughs for a moment.

“ready?” Gally asked, and immediately he charges at Thomas and pushes him out of the ring. Some of the watchers catch Thomas and Gally grabs him and tosses him to the ground.

“Come on Greenie, I am not done with you yet.” Gally said.

Thomas get up and looks at Gally. “Stop calling me Greenie.” He said. “My name is Thomas.”

Gally smirks at him again. “You have to earn that first, Greenie.”

Thomas now charges Gally, but Gally is too big for Thomas and he gets tossed around for a bit until he gets a lucky shot in and tosses Gally to the round. “Not bad for a Greenie huh.” Thomas said.

Gally turns around a tackles Thomas to ground. Thomas hits his head on the ground pretty hard and his vision goes black for a moment. Gally looks at him wanting to go on, but then Alby steps in. “Okay, that’s enough.” He said. And he helps Thomas up. Frypan gives Thomas another drink and he takes it and drinks it. He can get used to the taste; Thomas guesses. Gally then walks over to Thomas and shakes his hand.

“It’s been a while since someone managed to get me on the ground.” Gally said while looking at Alby. “You did a good job, Thomas.”

When he says that everyone starts cheering at Thomas and he smiles. Then the fire goes out.

“Okay, that’s it guys, the fire is out!” Marcus yells. “You know what that means, party’s over!”

At that everyone starts to gather their belonging and their drunk friends. Newt walks up to Thomas and smiles at him. Then they both start walking back to the dorms along with other students who live at the dorms. Thomas thinks to himself. That was some party. I think I am going to like it here. A lot. He then looks at Newt and smiles at him. He is happy that his roommate decided to invite him into the group, to this party and into his life. Newt smiles back at Thomas. Yeah, Thomas is going to like it here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was the last introduction chapter. in the next chapter i am going to start with the different storylines. and please don't hate me for some of them.
> 
> Also i liked the whole bonfire scene in the movie so i decided to put that in here too. including the wrestling match. i do think Marcus is a nice character but i like him to be this person who likes parties and doesn't care about underage drinking. just as we all know him from the movie, but he will be a nice character in this story. he wont try to capture anyone or something. he just likes to throw a party.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed. and feedback is always welcome.


	4. First day at college

Thomas’s alarm is going off. Newt grumbles something in his sleep, but Thomas can’t make it out and he is glad he can’t. Newt only has to wake up in another 3 hours so he probable isn’t happy with Thomas right now. Thomas isn’t really happy himself either. He has to start his first day at 9 am right away. And not just that but he starts with a 2-hour lecture about all the laws that are involved with architecture. He loves architecture. The building and designing part at least. He could do without all the rules and laws.

Thomas turns of his alarm and gets dressed. Still sleepy he walks over to the bathroom to freshen up before he goes to the kitchen to get breakfast. As he walks into the kitchen, he sees a skinny but still well build guy with a buzz cut and a nose Thomas thinks looks like it could be the size of a lemon. His white clothes stand out against his dark skin. His name is Jeff. Thomas met him a few days ago when he saw him walking around. He lives on the same floor and is also a first-year majoring in Surgery. That is why he has to wear white clothes.

“So, do all first years have to start so early?” Thomas asked.

Jeff smiles at him. “Nah, my roommate, Jack, doesn’t start until 11.” He said. “Pilots need their sleep I guess.”

Thomas remembers that Jack was also a first year wanting to be a pilot and so is majoring in Aviation. He smiles back at Jeff but doesn’t continue a conversation because he is still to tired. He makes himself a simple breakfast before he sits down to eat it. Jeff sits down across from him, but he seems to be really tired still as well, so they just eat in silence. Thomas does wonder why they are the only two to be awake already. With 20 guys on the same floor how can it be that only two of them have to start this early. Thomas grumbles at the thought of it.

After they are done eating, they put everything away and Thomas walks back to his room to get his bag for school. He tries to be as quiet as possible to make sure he doesn’t wake Newt again. He can be quite moody when he wakes up. Especially if he still has a few hours of sleep left. When Thomas has his back, he goes to school.

Luckily, he managed to get a room in one of the closest dorms to the school so he can just walk to school. Most of the students live much farter away and have to come to school either by car or bus. As he walks to school Thomas looks around, looking at the world waking up around him. As much as Newt hates waking up early Thomas loves it. Even though he is always tired as soon as he walks outside, he feels wide awake.

When Thomas arrives at the schools campus, he looks at his schedule again to see where he needs to be. Then he looks at the map he’s got from the school to see where that is exactly. He walks into one of the buildings at looks around to find the room he needs to be in. Because he isn’t paying enough attention he walks into another guy. He stumbles back a bit and starts apologizing immediately.

“I am so sorry. I wasn’t looking. I was to busy trying to find where I need to go.” Thomas said.

The other boy smiles at him. He is a bit taller then Thomas with blonde hair and wide eyes. “No problem. You are a first-year, right?” he said. “My name is Ben. Where do you need to go?”

“Yeah, it’s my first day. I am Thomas.” Thomas said. “I need to be in room 183.”

“Oh cool. Another architect major.” Ben said. “You can follow me. I major in architecture as well. I am a junior, but we all need to start with the architectural laws every year to make sure we don’t forget them. Even though they are changing constantly anyway.”

Thomas smiles at him a bit confused and relieved that he doesn’t have to search anymore. He follows Ben to the room. Ben then goes on to take a seat next to another boy he obviously knows. The other boy is a muscular guy with long blond hair. As Ben sits down Thomas is still standing at the door trying to figure out the best place to sit. Ben then call him over to come sit next to him. Thomas is okay with this and goes to sit next to Ben.

“Thomas this is Dan.” Ben said as he points to the long blond next to him. “he is a senior. He has to follow this lecture for the fifth time now.”

Thomas looks a bit confused. “Fifth time?” he asked.

Dan laughs at him. “Yeah, I failed last year.” He said. “ironically enough because I couldn’t remember the most basic laws that I had to study for four years.”

“that’s because you’re always busy shoving your tongue down Megan’s throat.” Ben said laughing.

Dan has a smirk on his face. “What, she’s hot.” He said.

“Yeah, but she didn’t think you were hot enough to keep.” Ben said laughing even harder. “wasted a whole year on her and she goes of with your brother.”

Dan gives Ben a jab in his ribs. “Shut up.” He said even though he is smiling.

Thomas laughs at seeing these two friends going at each other like that. He feels a bit sad that none of his friends are in the same class as him. When the teacher comes in everyone goes quiet and the lecture starts.

After a boring yet interesting lecture, (weird how it can be both.) Thomas goes to his next class. He has to search again for the room, but he manages to find it. He has a 1-hour math class before he can go to lunch. Luckily this time Teresa is also there. They both sit about halfway.

Thomas is even more bored in this class than in the previous one. To keep himself from falling asleep he starts to draw. When Teresa looks over at him, she sees he is drawing a maze. “Did you know that mice can easily escape any maze?” she asked. “They are varying intelligent creatures. Sometimes even smarter then humans.”

Thomas looks at her and smiles. “Actually, I did know that.” He said. “I did this experiment in high school for a project once. I build a maze and I would put a mouse in it to see how long it would take it to find the exit. The I would try the same with two mice to see if they would work together and be faster. They were and I tried it with more mice. When you put to many together, they just start a sort of community together and they wont try that hard to find the exit anymore.”

Teresa starts laughing for a moment trying not to get caught by the teacher. “I did the same with monkeys in high school.” She said. “we should compare them one day to see which of them were better.”

Thomas nods at that. “We should do that.” He said. He wants to talk some more but the teacher looks at them and they have to pay attention to the class again. Thomas does sneak a few glances at Teresa now and then. She does look quite good when she smiles. He doesn’t know why, but he feels some sort of connection between them.

After the class Thomas and Teresa both walk to the canteen. They are talking again about both their maze experiments. When they arrive at the canteen, they see Newt sitting at one of the tables eating a sandwich. They walk up to him.

“Look who decided to wake up.” Thomas teases him. “didn’t you have time to make breakfast or did you just not bother.”

Newt looks mad at Thomas and flips him off. “I guess you haven’t had your coffee yet either.” Thomas said. “He is always moody when he hasn’t had coffee yet.”

Teresa starts laughing and Newt just rolls his eyes at Thomas. Thomas and Teresa then go to get some lunch and when they come back, they sit down next to Newt. Thomas looks very smug when he sets a coffee in front of Newt. Newt looks at Thomas both in thanks and annoyance, but still take the coffee and drinks it. When he tastes is his eyes grow wide.

“Bloody hell, you got me an americano?” Newt asked in disbelief.

Thomas is now smiling even more smug. “A good barista remembers their customers wishes.” He said.

Newt tries to look annoyed still, but can’t help it to smile. “You really are an idiot eh, Thomas.” He said as he drinks more of his coffee.

As they are talking to each other, Thomas sees Ben coming over with another guy. A taller guy with brown hair that is cut surprisingly short. “Hey Newt” the guy said as they stop near the table.

“Oh, hey Aris. Hey Ben.” Newt said as he looks up to them. “Thomas, Teresa, this is Aris. He was my roommate before he wanted to switch to be with his boyfriend.” Newt smirks as he said the last part.

Aris and Ben both turn red. “He is not my boyfriend you bloody idiot.” Aris said trying to copy Newt British accent but failing miserably. “He is just my best friend, and I wanted to share a room with him.”

Newt looks a bit unconfutable at the accent. “I told you never to do that again.” Newt said. “It sounds bloody ridicules.”

Thomas looks a bit confused at Newt. “I thought your previous roommate dropped out?” he asked.

Newt nods. “Yeah he did.” He said. “That crank was what I got in return for lover boy over here. He annoyed the shit out of me.”

Thomas laughs at that. “well, at least he dropped out and now you have me.” He said.

Newt tries to look annoyed again. “Yeah, you are even worse.” He said. “waking me up 3 hours early. Why do you think I am this moody today?”

Before Thomas can say anything Aris answers first. “because you are always moody.” He said smiling. “Don’t worry Thomas, he has always been this way.”

Newt flips him off and the rest start laughing. When lunchtime comes to an end it’s time to get back to class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the last chapter that will only follow Thomas. i wanted to use him to introduce most of the other characters, but now that i am going to start with he storylines i am going to start hoping over to others as well. this will be my first time trying this writhing style so hopefully it will be good.


	5. past, present and future.

After classes are over there is an assembly for all students to attend. Newt goes to the atrium and tries to find his friends. When he sees Minho, he goes over and sits down next to him. The rest of the group sits down with them. Thomas sits down next to Teresa, who is sitting next to Brenda. Newt wanted to sit next to Thomas, but that spot was already taken by Ben and Aris was sitting next to him. With Frypan and Winston sitting between Newt and Aris there is quite the distance between him and Thomas and he doesn’t like it. At least he can sit with Minho because Newt doesn’t like any of the assemblies for a specific reason. When they sit down Newt tries to blend in with the rest not to be noticed. People are still coming in and everyone is still talking to each other. Newt glances over to Thomas and he sees him and Teresa talking and laughing together. Newt didn’t notice he was staring until he gets a jab in his ribs from Minho.

“Bloody hell mate, what was that for?” Newt asked looking annoyed at his friend.

“You do know that staring is impolite, don’t you?” Minho asked with a knowing smile on his face. “Have you told him yet?”

“Told who what?” Newt asked confused.

“You know. Have you told Thomas that you like him?”

Newts eyes grow big and he feels his cheeks warm up a bit. “No of course not.” Newt answers trying to hide his embarrassment. “why would I tell him that? He is my roommate, nothing more.”

“That didn’t stop you liking someone before.” Minho said with a smug smile in his face.

“uhg, I should have never told you that I had a crush on Aris.” Newt said rolling his eyes at Minho. “That was then and that is over now. I don’t have a crush on Thomas and if you ever tell him that you know what I will tell Brenda.”

Now it’s Minho’s turn to turn red. “I told you that in confidence. Don’t you dare tell anyone about that.”

Newt now smiles at Minho. “then we agree to drop this whole subject?”

Minho sighs for a moment, annoyed that his friend beat him at his own game. “agreed.”

Newt the looks back over at Thomas, who is still laughing with Teresa. In the corner of his eye he can see Ben and Aris also having fun talking to each other. _If only they knew. What would they say?_ Newt is brought out of his thoughts when someone taps on a microphone on the podium. A thin looking man with gray hair and a rat-like face is stood on the podium holding a microphone. A few other teachers are sitting behind him. As soon as Newt sees the man, he slides down his chair a bit more, trying to hide himself. The man on the odium waits a moment for the talking to die down before he starts talking.

“Welcome all to another year here at the Gladers State College. My name is Mr. Jansen and I am the Headmaster of this College. Some of you will get to know me as your biochemistry teacher. If not, you don’t want to get to know me. That just means you got into trouble.” He laughs a bit at himself. And Newt just grumbles in irritation.

Mr. Jansen goes on with a little speech and some of the teacher sitting behind him also give a few speeches. It’s all just about how great learning can be and that you have to follow the rules, or you get into trouble.

After the assembly everyone gets up and starts walking out of the atrium.

As he is walking through the door with Minho, Newt trips and has to catch himself to stop himself from falling to the ground. He flinches for a moment as there is a burst of pain going through his bad leg. Minho looks concerned at his friend.

“Are you okay?” he asked looking at his friend who is now limping more than usual.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tripped that’s all.” Newt answers.

“have you told Thomas about what happened?” Minho asked now looking a bit sad.

Newt who starts to get annoyed with his friend again answers. “Mate, I’ve known Thomas for a week now. Those are not the things you tell when you first meet someone. Hey, nice to meet you. I’m Newt. I’m gay and this is how I fucked up my leg.”

Minho decides not to respond to that as he knows how this subject effects his friend and they walk back to the dorms in silence.

 

 

When Minho walks into his room he sees Gally already in wrestling uniform.

“Hey Gally, you decided not to go to the assembly?” Minho asked.

Gally who is now packing a bag with stuff he needs answers. “No, I had to get ready for my match and it’s all the same as always anyway.”

Minho looks at his roommate packing his bag. “You still don’t want your friends to come to your match?”

“Nope. No need for that. I already have enough supporters. I don’t want to take up too much space in the audience for just my friends.” Gally answers.

When Gally is finished packing he zips up the bag and throws it over his shoulder. “I will tell you about my victory when I get back.” Gally said while walking out the door.

Minho looks at his roommate as he closes the door behind him. _I wonder why he never let’s us come and watch him. even if there would be to many people at once, can’t he just alternate with his friends coming to see his matches?_

 

 

Newt is sitting at his desk doing some homework when Thomas walks in. Newt looks up at Thomas.

“You are back late.” Newt said. “Had trouble finding your way back?”

Thomas looks at Newt and smiles at him. “No, I just went over to Teresa and Brenda. Teresa wanted to show me something and we kept talking afterward.” He said. “You were gone pretty fast. Was something wrong?”

Newt flinches a bit, but Thomas doesn’t seem to notice. “Yeah, I wanted to avoid having to talk to Mr. Jansen. I don’t really like that guy.”

Thomas looks a bit confused. “why? He seems nice to me.”

Newt sighs annoyingly. “Yeah, that’s because you haven’t actually met him yet.”

Thomas just shrugs at that. “How is your leg by the way?” he asked. “I saw you trip when you left the atrium and I noticed that you limped a bit more afterwards.”

Newt looks back at his homework trying to focus on something else. “Yeah, I did. It’s fine. Just happens sometimes.”

Thomas still wants to know what happened to Newts leg, but he feels like Newt is trying to avoid that subject altogether, so he just lets it be. Maybe he will ask some of Newts friends if they know. That way Newt doesn’t have to tell the story himself. Thomas then decides to do some homework himself. They continue working on their own homework in silence for a while until there is a knock on the door. Newt wants to get it, but Thomas is faster. As he opens the door, they see Minho standing there.

“Oh, hey Minho, what’s up?” Thomas asked.

Minho steps into the room and goes to lie down on Newts bed. “Nothing much. Just Gally is off to his wrestling match and I don’t want to be alone in my room the whole evening as some loser.”

Thomas looks confused at Minho. “Don’t you have homework?”

Minho smiles at Thomas. “Nope, that’s one of the benefits of doing a sports major. The only thing I have to worry about is keeping myself in shape that’s why I go for a run every morning.”

“That sounds nice, maybe I will join you someday if you are okay with that.” Thomas said.

Minho looks at him a bit baffled. “Really? You want to go on a run with me? None of my friends ever wants to run with me. Not even Gally or Alby and they are the sporty ones.”

Newt grumbles for a moment and both Minho and Thomas look at him. “I used to run every morning as well when I lived in England. I wish I still could, but you should know why I can’t anymore, Minho”

Thomas looks over to Minho and sees his expression change to a sad one. _I guess Minho knows more about what happened to Newt. It makes sense since they have been friends aver since Newt moved out here._

Minho wanting to change the subject and the mood stands up and in protest closes Newts books. Newt looks up at Minho. “What the hell Minho, I was working on that.”

Minho just smiles at Newt. “I know, that’s the problem. Always working and not enough fun.” Minho said as he looks from Newt to Thomas and back. “Now it’s time to have some fun.”

Before either Newt or Thomas could object, they were already dragged out of their room.

Minho led them to the beach. When they arrived there Thomas was surprised to see the beach completely empty even though it was still the middle of summer. Minho looked at Thomas and smiled.

“We call it The Scorch. Everyone goes to the other beaches along the shore here, but no-one ever comes here because the city doesn’t allow any buildings on this beach to make sue that the sea life here is protected. That’s why it’s always scorching hot here. Therefore, the name.” Minho explained.

Then Minho starts to undress. And Newt just looks weird at him. like he is annoyed, but also a bit amused. “Well, I guess we spend the rest of the day at the beach then.” Newt said as he starts taking off his shirt.”

Thomas, who is even more confused now, Looks form Minho to Newt and back. “Wait, I don’t have any swim trunks with me or a towel.”

Minho starts laughing at that. He is already in his underwear. “Neither do we.” He said with a mischievous look on his face. “that’s why we go to a beach that’s just for us.” And as he said the last part, he pulls down his boxers and starts running butt naked towards the sea.

Newt now can’t stop laughing at the face Thomas makes. “Something wrong Thomas? You aren’t scared to get naked in front of your friends, are you?” At this point Newt has also completely undressed and now starts running towards Minho who is already in the water.

Thomas is still dumbfounded standing on the beach fully clothed watching his friends. _They must be crazy._ He then sighs and starts undressing himself. _I must be crazy._ As he thinks that he tries to cover a little smile forming on his face. When he is also naked, he runs towards the water and his friends.

Newt and Minho both start cheering as Thomas dives into the sea. Thomas laughs at them. “You guys really are crazy.”

Minho laughs. “You are here now. So, so are you.” He said as he splashes Thomas in the face. Thomas reacts and Newt joins in as well. They stay in the water for a while. Swimming and having fun until it is time to get out. The three of them walk back to the beach and to their clothes. When they get to their clothes, Thomas realizes that he can’t get dressed while he is still wet. He looks over at his friends to see what they do. Newt and Minho just walk over to a few rocks and lie down in between them making sure they aren’t visible from the road. Thomas goes over and joins them. He tries his best not to look to much at his friends as he doesn’t want to be weird about the fact that they are all naked together.

As he lies down Newt looks at him and smiles. “Now you don’t have to be scared anymore when you come into the room. Now you’ve already seen me naked.”

Minho laughs at that and Thomas tries to cover himself getting red. Minho then taps Newt on his side and hen Newt looks over at Minho he sees another knowing smile in his face. Newt rolls his eyes at Minho and jabs his elbow in his ribs hoping Thomas didn’t notice anything.

When they have dried by the sun the three of them et themselves dressed and go back to the dorms.


	6. another bonfire

Minho returns back to his room after the little sim he had with Newt and Thomas. As he walks in, he sees Gally with his shirt off looking in the mirror. As Minho looks at Gally he sees a few bruises over his face and torso. Minho’s eyes grow big.

“Wow dude, what the hell happened to you?” Minho blurts out.

Gally flinches and turns towards Minho with a worried face. He tries to get himself together again.

“Oh, uhm, this? It’s nothing really.” Gally stammers. “I just lost the match. He was pretty big and very strong. I did my best. These bruises are just evidence of how hard I tried to win still.”

Minho feels like Gally isn’t telling the entire truth, but Minho knows that there is no way to get Gally to talk if he doesn’t want to. “It looks pretty bad though. Shouldn’t you have it checked by a doctor?”

Gally pulls his shirt back on. “There is always a doctor present there just in case. She already looked at it. It’s nothing really, just needs rest to heal. I will be ready to wrestle again before my next match.”

Minho still doesn’t believe him, but he decides to drop it. He grabs a towel and shampoo and goes to the bathroom to take a shower.

 

 

Newt and Thomas both walk into their room. Thomas goes to sit on his bed Newt just drops face down onto his bed. Thomas laughs at him. “You okay over there?”

Newt Grumbles. “I just now noticed how much my leg hurts. I guess I overdid it a bit in the water.”

Newt then turns around and goes in a sitting position on his bed with his legs straight in front of him. he is massaging his bad leg.

“Is that helping?” Thomas asked.

“A little. After is first happened I had a therapist who did it better. She taught me how to do it myself, but she said that it would always be better if someone else would do it because they can reach it better.”

Thomas looks at what Newt is doing. “It doesn’t look that hard to do. Do you want me to do it?”

Newt stops and looks up at Thomas. “Would you be okay with that?”

Thomas laughs and goes over to Newt. “Dude, we just saw each other naked. A little massage to help a friend isn’t really crossing a line than, is it?”

Newt laughs and has to agree. He shows Thomas how to do it and Thomas starts to massage Newt. Newt lies on his back and relaxes.

“That actually feels really good.”

“Glad I could help. What actually happened? You never told me.” Thomas is hoping he isn’t crossing a line here, but he just wants to know.

Newt stays silent for a bit trying to think if he should tell Thomas.

“When we moved to America me and my sister were really sad. My dad decided to cheer us up by building a treehouse in the backyard. One day I was sitting up there enjoying the view when I lost my balance and fell down. Broke my leg in three places. It never healed properly. I am just glad I can walk at all.”

Thomas feels bad for Newt. “Lucky for you it was only your leg, it could have been much worse. It was really nice of your dad to build the treehouse though.”

When Thomas said that Newt looked even sadder.

“What’s wrong?” Thomas asked confused.

“it’s nothing. It’s just that my mum blamed my dad for what had happened because he built the treehouse. They were fighting a lot after it had happened. They got divorced and I blamed myself for it. Even though I now know it wasn’t my fault at all.”

Thomas thinks he saw a little smile when Newt said the last part, but he isn’t really sure. He stops massaging Newt’s leg. “Does it feel better?”

Newt looks up at him a bit dazed from how relaxed he was. “Bloody hell, that felt good. Could you do the rest of me as well. I mean you have seen me naked already.” Newt said with a mischievous smile on his face.”

Thomas is a little taken aback by this, but why not. “Uhm, yeah, sure.”

Newt eyes go wide for a moment as he didn’t expect Thomas to agree. He does like the idea though, so he decides to go along with it as well. He gets undressed. Leaving his boxers on just to be a bit more discreet. As he lies down on his stomach again, Thomas starts massaging him by the shoulders.

“Oh my god, you really are a natural. Where did you learn this?”

Thomas laughs. “Actually, this is my first time. I didn’t even know I could do this.”

“Well you can do this more often.”

Thomas laughs again. “We will see about that.”

After Thomas has finished massaging Newt he gets up and goes back to sit on his bed.

“Wow, that felt amazing. Thanks Tommy.” Newt said a bit dazed.

Thomas looks up at Newt. “Did you just call me Tommy?”

Newts eyes grow big and his face turns red as he realized what he just said. “Oh, I uh, I didn’t mean to. I… I’m sorry.”

Thomas smiles at Newt. “It’s okay, I don’t mind. I’m just not used to people giving me a nickname. You can call me Tommy if you want, but ONLY you.”

Newt’s face is still red. He feels really embarrassed that he just said that, but if Thomas is ok with it, he might keep using it. He does kind of like it.

 

 

The rest of the week goes by pretty fast. Thomas had boring classes in school as they start with the theory first and Thomas just wants to start designing and building. He also worked a few days at The Maze again, getting in some hours of work. Newt also worked a few days at the bookstore. Both had gotten used to Newt calling Thomas Tommy by now. The rest of the group tried to do the same, but Thomas cut that down right away. That did get a reaction out of them that Newt was special, but Thomas just told them that he is allowed to call him that because he was first. During this week Ben and Aris joined the group more often which apparently didn’t sit well with Gally as he just got more annoyed as the week went by. The others also noticed his bruises, but Gally just brushed it of as a wrestling injury. When the rest would ask why hadn’t had any before, he just said that was because he hadn’t lost a match before.

When Saturday cam around the group decided to go the bonfire again at The Maze. This time Aris and Ben came with them as well, even though Gally was against that, but as they could just come on their own and join the group at the party Gally reluctantly agreed.

As they all arrived at the back of The Maze, they saw the stack of wood that was placed in the middle again ready to be lit. Gally Immediately went to the side area where apparently his wrestling circle was a permanent marker there. Frypan who had heard that Gally had his brew for the party had asked Marcus if he could use the kitchen to make some food for the party. Marcus agreed without any thought and Frypan couldn’t have been happier. After they had settled in, Thomas saw that Rachel and Beth had joined the party as well this time. They were with a group of other girls Thomas assumed were also from the B dorms. Thomas didn’t recognize the other girls, but Brenda did recognize Harriet as they had met during class. They were the only girls in the Criminal Justice major. Harriet was a pretty girl with warm brown skin, but the long dreadlocks made her look just as tough as Brenda did.

When Frypan came outside of the kitchen for a moment, he immediately came over to another girl and grabbed her to follow him to the kitchen. They had met in cooking class. Her name was Kim and she had bright red hair and glasses. The other girls were later introduced by Rachel. Ximena was also a pretty girl with dark skin and black hair. Miyoko was an Asian girl with warm brown skin and long black hair. Lexi was a beautiful girl with long golden blonde hair and brown eyes. She did have quite pale skin which made Thomas wonder if she was Newt sister, but Newt told him she wasn’t.

After they all had met, Marcus came outside to light the bonfire and the party started. Everyone had a lot of fun and were enjoying Gally’s drink and Frypan and Kim’s food.

A bit later Alby was tackled by a guy with broad shoulders and short curly hair. After they had wrestled for a bit, Alby introduced him as Billy. Another Military Science major. Billy and Alby both go over to the wrestling ring to challenge Gally to a match.

Aris is standing with the rest of the group. He is talking to Ben. But they are interrupted when Rachel bumps into Aris and he stumbles over. When Aris and Ben look at Rachel, they can see that she is pretty drunk already.

“Whoa, easy there.” Aris said trying to help Rachel steady herself. “How much have you had already?”

Rachel smiles at Aris when she puts an arm around him to be able to stand up right. “Just a few. I’m fine.” She said with a slurry voice.

Aris looks at Ben with a silent apology. “I think it’s best if I bring her home.”

Ben nods at him in understanding. “Do you know where she lives?”

Aris thinks for a moment. “I heard Brenda mentioning that she lived in their dorms as well but a floor up. So, she must live on the seconds floor. I’m sure I will find her room when we get there.”

Ben nods at him again and then Aris takes Rachel with him as they go back to the dorms. Rachel is struggling a bit as she doesn’t want to leave her friends, but she agrees when Aris tells Ben to tell her friends where she went. Rachel keeps hanging onto Aris and he feels a bit guilty when he notices that he actually really likes that. He doesn’t want to take advantage of her, but he can’t get it out of his mind that he wants to hold onto her for longer.

When they arrive at the B dorms Aris takes Rachel inside. A few of the girls who are already there keep an eye on Aris to make sure that he is not a pervert, but they let him take Rachel to her room. They told him she lived in room B29 so that’s where he takes her. He then helps her to get her key and opens the door. He lets Rachel tell him which bed is hers and he puts her in bed. He stares at her for a moment trying to decide if he should help her undress or if that would be taking advantage. He then decides that it would be okay to help her get rid of some of her clothes but nothing to revealing.

After she is undressed as far as Aris dares to help her, she lies down in bed and Aris wants to leave.

“Please don’t go yet.” Aris hears Rachel calling after him. he turns around and sees Rachel looking at him. “I don’t want to be alone now. What if something happens?”

Aris thinks about it for a second and then decides that he can stay for a bit. He grabs the chair from the desk and goes to sit next to her bed. “I will stay here until you fall asleep then.”

Rachel nods at him. “Thank you. For bringing me home. You really are a nice guy.”

Aris smiles at her. “No problem. I just wanted to make sure you got home safely. I like you as well.”

Rachel doesn’t know if it is because she likes him or because she is drunk, but she can’t keep herself from getting up and kissing Aris. Aris falls into the kiss until he realizes that she is still drunk, and he backs up.

Rachel looks disappointed. “Don’t you like it? Don’t you like me?” she asked.

“No, no, it’s not that I don’t like you. You are drunk and I don’t want to take advantage of you.” He tries to explain. He really does like her and he liked the kiss as well, but he really doesn’t want her to think that he took advantage of her because she is drunk.

Rachel slowly nods still looking sad. “I understand.” she said, and she lies back down.

Aris stays there sitting until she falls asleep as he promised. He does stay a bit longer thinking of what had just happened. _Was that kiss real or was it just because she is drunk? Do I actually like her?_ He is taken out of his thoughts when the door opens and Harriet walks in. She looks at Rachel who is half undressed sleeping in her bed and then at Aris who is sitting in the chair next to the bed. Aris looks at her trying not to look to guilty.

“I just wanted to make sure she got home safely.” He said when he looks at Rachel and realizes what It might look like he says: “I helped her get undressed a bit so she would be more comfortable. I made sure I didn’t take off anything to revealing.” He thinks for a moment whether or not he should tell her about the kiss. “She… she did kiss me after, but I backed up because I don’t want to take advantage of her.” He adds hesitantly.

Harriet looks at him. She doesn’t seem angry or judging him in any way. “it’s okay, Ben told me what happened. I am just glad she got home safely.” She tries to reassure him. “About the kiss. I might be better to keep that between us if she won’t remember. Just to make sure she doesn’t get angry at you for not stopping her or something.”

Aris nods slowly. “I think that would be best.” He said looking a bit sad.

Harriet looks at him trying to read his mind. “You really like her, don’t you?”

Aris nods again and Harriet smiles at him. “We will see what she remembers in the morning. Then we will know what to do next. I will see if I can tell her in a good way about the kiss if she doesn’t remember.”

Aris looks at Harriet with a thankful smile. He then looks at Rachel once more before he leaves their room and goes back to his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet more characters. I do have a lot of them and I haven't even introduced all of them. hopefully it's not to much.   
> I did like writhing the massaging part between Thomas (Tommy) and Newt.  
> I hope you guys still like my story so far. Feedback is always apriciated.


	7. Feelings

Rachel wakes up the next morning with a massive hangover. She tries to look around the room without moving her head to much. She can see that Harriet is already up, working on some leftover homework. Rachel tries to sit up but groans a bit as her head starts throbbing even more. Harriet looks up at the sound of her friend. She smiles for a moment trying to hide it from her friend.

“Rough night last night, huh.” Harriet said with a quiet voice.

Rachel looks at her feeling miserable. “Please don’t talk. My head is about to explode.”

Harriet gets up from her desk and grabs the glass of water and the pain killers she already had ready. She gives them to Rachel. “I heard you had fun last night.”

Rachel takes the pills and drinks the water. Then her eyes grow big. “Oh my god, Aris. He brought me home and I kissed him. I am so stupid. Now he will hate me for sure.”

Harriet laughs at that. _At least she remembers and doesn’t blame Aris._ “Don’t worry, I’m sure he will understand. Just go and talk to him later.”

Rachel sighs. “Easy for you to say. You didn’t embarrass yourself in front of him.”

Harriet now has mischievous smile on her face. “No, but I did talk to him last night after you fell asleep.”

Rachel turns to look at Harriet. She squints her eyes at the throbbing pain in her head because of the sudden movement. “You did? What did he say? Tell me.”

“No, I told you. You should go talk to him. he will tell you.” Harriet said still smiling.

Rachel groans at her. “I hate you; you know that.”

 

 

When Aris wakes up, he looks over at Ben. He is still sleeping. Aris thinks back at what happened the night before. _Rachel kissed me and now she probably will hate me for taking advantage of her. Why does that even bother me so much? I just barely know her._ He is taken out of thought when Ben turns in his sleep but doesn’t wake up. _I should probably just talk to her. Or maybe I should talk to Harriet first to make sure I won’t get slapped in the face by Rachel._ Aris decides that would be the best option. He gets up from his bed and grabs some stuff before he walks over to the bathroom. He wants to take a shower first. He feels like he could use one.

 

 

Thomas also wakes up from his alcohol induced sleep. He feels a bit of, but he is glad that he doesn’t have a hangover. When he sits up, he looks over at Newt who is reading a book on his bed. Newt notices and looks over at Thomas. “Morning Tommy.” He said smiling.

“Morning Newt.” Thomas answers smiling at the nickname. “You know, I should get a nickname for you. It’s only fair.” He said with a naughty look on his face.

Newt doesn’t seem bothered by it. “Too late, mate. You already have one. Or did you think Newt was my actual name?”

Now that Thomas thinks about it, it does seem like a strange name. “What is your actual name then?”

Newt sighs for a moment. He doesn’t really like telling people, but he trusts Thomas that he won’t make fun of him. “It’s Newton. I just shortened it to Newt. I like that better.”

Thomas smiles at him. “Newton? As in Isaac Newton?”

Newt rolls his eyes at Thomas. “Yes, as in Isaac Newton, only for me it is my first name. Please don’t make fun of it.”

Thomas looks hurt. “Why would I make fun of it. You are my friend. But if Newton is your first name, then what is your last name? Mine is Cooper by the way.”

Newt looks away. He doesn’t really like telling people his last name, because then they will also know who his father is. “Uhm, I uh…” he sighs. “It’s Janson. My name in Newton Janson.”

Thomas face falls. “Wait, Janson? As in our headmaster Mr. Janson. The Rat Man.” We started calling him The Rat Man since he looks like a rat. Actually, it was Newt who started it.

“Yes, he is my dad. Please don’t make a big deal out of this.”

Thomas can see that Newt doesn’t really like talking about it. “I won’t, I promise.” He said. “But, I still want a nickname for you. You have one for me all for yourself. I want that too. A nickname that only I can use.” He looks really mischievous again while adding: “Maybe Rat boy?”

Newt tries to look hurt at him but fails. He then decides just to throw his pillow at Thomas. He just laughs and Newt now starts laughing to. It was kind of funny, but if he dares to actually use it, he will hate him.

 

 

Harriet and Rachel are sitting at a table at The Maze. Aris had texted Harriet asking if she wants to talk to him about Rachel. She had sent a text back that it was okay and to meet her at The Maze. She didn’t mention that Rachel would be there to. Neither did she mention to Rachel that Aris would come. She knows why they are afraid to talk to each other, but she feels like it would be a good thing for them to do so.

When the bell rings at the door, Harriet looks over and sees Aris walking in. She waves at him which made Rachel look over as well. Her eyes grow big and she feels her face turn red. “Why didn’t you tell me he was coming?” she asked.

Harriet looks at Rachel with a bemused smile on her face. “Because you wouldn’t have agreed to come then.”

“No, I wouldn’t have. Because I told you I don’t want to talk to him.”

Harriet still smiles. “Neither does he want to talk to you, but I think it would be good for you two to talk.”

When Aris arrives and sees that Rachel is also sitting at the table, he freezes for a moment. He looks at Harriet with a confused expression.

Harriet looks form Aris to Rachel and back. “The two of you don’t want to talk about last night, but I think you should. So, I arranged for you both to be here. Now talk.”

When she said that she stands up and walks a few tables over to sit down there. Aris reluctantly sits down across from Rachel. They both stare at each other for a moment in awkward silence until Rachel decides to talk.

“Thanks for taking me home last night.” She almost whispers.

“Uhm, yeah, no problem. I uh… I wasn’t sure if you would be okay with me undressing you. So, I made sure I didn’t take of anything to revealing.” Aris said trying to hide is embarrassment.

Rachel also turns red a bit. “Yeah, thanks. I appreciate that. I uhm… I’m sorry for kissing you. I wasn’t thinking.”

Aris looks down at the table. “Yeah, I’m sorry to. I should have stopped you. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you.”

Rachel looks surprised. “Wait, you think you took advantage of me? Don’t be silly. I was drunk. I should have never kissed you.”

Aris looks at Rachel again a bit more embarrassed. “But, I did take advantage of you. When you kissed me, I didn’t stop you and I didn’t back up right away, because… because I kind of liked it.”

Rachel now looks surprised. “You... You liked it?”

Aris looks back at the table and slowly nods.

“Do uh… Do you like me?” Rachel asked almost in a whisper.

Aris now turns completely red and slowly nods again wanting to vanish into a whole in the earth or something.

Rachel then takes his chin to guide him to look up at her again. When he does, she leans forward and kisses him again. After they break apart, she says: “I like you to.” And she then smiles at him.

Aris is surprised and confused, but he does like it. He then leans in and kisses her again. This time the kiss holds longer. They break apart only when they start laughing because Harriet is cheering loudly form the other side of the café. They both look into each other eyes and smile at each other. Both feeling very happy.

 

 

Thomas is walking around the room cleaning up a bit, when he realizes that Newt hasn’t been out of bet all day. “Don’t you have anything else to do then just lying in bed reading all day?”

Newt looks up from his book. He looks a bit sad. “No, not really. I just… I don’t feel like doing anything today.”

Thomas now looks at Newt a bit concerned. “Are you feeling okay? You look a bit off today.”

Newt sighs. “No not really. I sometimes have these days. Days that I just don’t feel like doing anything. It will pass. Don’t you worry about it.”

Thomas tries to figure out if he should listen to Newt telling him not to worry or if he should worry more because he said that. “You sure it’s okay?”

Newt nods at him and goes back to his book. Thomas decides to drop it and goes back to cleaning their room. Although he does keep an eye on Newt for the rest of the day.

 

 

Gally had another wrestling match today. When he comes back to his room, Minho is there doing some stretches getting ready for an evening run. Gally walks to his closet to put his stuff away. Minho looks at him and Gally seems to look a bit sad and defeated.

“How did your match go?” he asked carefully.

Gally doesn’t look up. “I lost again.”

When Gally turns around, Minho notices he has a black eye that looks pretty bad. “Whoa dude, where did you get that from?”

Gally just looks annoyed now. “I told you. I lost the match. I wasn’t focused and then this happens.”

Minho looks concerned. _Gally is always focused on his wrestling. He almost thinks of nothing else._ “How come you weren’t focused? Wrestling is the only you focus on it seems.” Minho tries with a smile.

Gally now looks Minho in the eyes and he looks angry. “I just wasn’t focused okay. Can you just drop it? My day has been bad enough already.” He snaps at Minho.

Minho is a bit taken aback by this. He decides not to push any further. Gally then goes over to the bathroom to take a shower. _I wonder what has gotten into him._ Minho thinks. _He has always had an attitude, but never this bad. That black eye also doesn’t look like a normal wrestling injury._

Minho goes down to Thomas and Newts room. He knocks and wait for someone to open the door. When Thomas opens the door, Minho can see that Newt is on his bed looking a bit sad. He steps into the room and sits down at Newts desk.

Newt looks up from his book at Minho who looks disturbed. “Hey Minho, What’s up?”

Minho looks over at Newt. “I think something’s wrong with Gally. He doesn’t seem like himself lately.”

Newt looks confused. “What do you mean? He has just been his obnoxious self as always.”

Minho shakes his head. “No, he hasn’t been himself. He’s been even more obnoxious then normal especially since Ben and Aris joined our group. He also told me that he lost another wrestling match because he wasn’t focused.”

This gets Newts attention and he sits up for it. Thomas just looks between the to trying to figure out what’s going on. He doesn’t know Gally all that well, so he doesn’t know if he is worse or not.

“What do you mean, he wasn’t focused? Wrestling is the only thing he focuses on.” Newt said in disbelief.

Minho looks at Newt with an even more disturbed face. “I know, that’s what I aid. He just snapped at me that it happens. He had a new black eye as well, but it didn’t look like a wrestling injury.”

Newt tries to think what could be up with Gally, but he has no idea. “Well, if he snapped at you, then maybe it would be best to just leave him alone for a while.”

All three boys look at each other and reluctantly agree that it would probably be for the best.


	8. Troubles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been a few days. school has been busy. i will try to post as often as possible, but i can say this will happen more often. hope you enjoy this chapter.

On Monday Thomas had the morning off from school. So, he had decided to work a 4-hour morning shift at The Maze. Newt also had the morning off and as usual when Thomas had to get up before Newt, he got really moody when Thomas’s alarm woke him up to. Only this time he decided he could use an early morning coffee. Together they went to The Maze. Newt had texted Minho that he should come as well after his early morning run. When Thomas went to the back, he saw Rachel already there. He had heard what had happened to her at the party. She didn’t seem bothered or anything. In fact, she seemed to be really happy. Even more so then normal.

“Morning, what has gotten you in such a good mood today?” Thomas greeted her.

She turned around and looked at Thomas with the biggest smile. “Oh, nothing. Just had a great weekend.”

Thomas looked at her for a moment trying to figure out what she meant. “You got drunk at a party and had to be taken home by Aris to make sure you were safe. How is that a good weekend?”

She smiled at him at the mention of Aris’s name. “Because it was Aris who brought me home. I was drunk and I kissed him. Later it turned out that he liked it. So, we started kissing more and now… you know, we do it even more.”

Thomas looked at her with a bit of a surprised smile. “Nice, so, you are a couple now?”

Rachel looked away for a moment. “I wouldn’t say that just yet. We haven’t really talked about that yet, but I think we might be. Just don’t tell anyone yet. It would be really embarrassing if Aris doesn’t feel the same.”

Thomas nodded. “I won’t tell a soul. I promise.”

After they both were done, they walked out to the front and as usual Rachel would do the counter and Thomas would do the waitering. Thomas had already learnt how to work the counter as well, but he preferred to walk around. If it got really busy, he would help with the counter as well.

Minho came in half an hour after Newt and Thomas and he ordered a coffee and sat down next to Newt. Thomas stood with them talking with them. (He was allowed to talk to his friends during work time when it wasn’t that busy. As long as his work was still doing well, there was no problem.) After he finished his coffee, Minho was already of to school again. He did have morning classes.

Newt and Thomas were talking a bit more when Aris came in, he greeted Thomas and Newt, but instead of sitting down with them and ordering from Thomas like he always did, he now walked up to the counter and ordered from Rachel. What Thomas didn’t expect was that Aris just openly kissed Rachel after he had made his order. _Well, that’s one less thing for Rachel to worry about, I guess._

Newt looked surprised at the two of them. “What was that?”

Thomas smiled at Newt. “That my dear Newt, is what they call a kiss. You might learn more about it when you are a bit older.”

Newt looked at Thomas with a disgruntled expression. “Ha ha, very funny. I know what a kiss is you bloody idiot. Since when are they kissing each other? Oh, and for the record. I am still older then you Greenie.”

Thomas rolled his eyes at that nickname. Newt liked to call him Greenie still just to mess with and to show him that he was better at something than Thomas. “I guess since he party. Rachel just told me that when Aris had brought her home, she kissed him and he liked it. So, of course, they started doing it more.” Thomas explained.

Newt looked back at Aris and Rachel. Rachel had given Aris his drink and he gave her another kiss. “Well, good for them I guess, but could they just not shove it in everyone’s face?”

Thomas laughed. “Are we a bit jealous? Or are we still just grumpy that I woke you up so early?”

Newt just rolled his eyes at Thomas and took another big gulp from his coffee.

When Thomas’s shift was over both he and Newt went to school. Aris apparently had the whole day off, because he stayed with Rachel, who Thomas knew had the day off.

 

 

As Newt and Thomas arrive at school, they both go their separate ways to their own classes. Newt is walking towards his Psychology class when he sees Gally. He waves at him. Gally looks at Newt and gives him a little nod in response. Newt now notices the big black eye that Minho had mentioned. He has to agree with Minho that it doesn’t look like a wrestling injury.

When they are close enough to each other Newt starts talking. “Hey Gally, what happened to your eye?”

Gally just shrugs. “Just a wrestling injury. I lost my match, no big deal.”

Newt looks a bit confused at Gally. Losing a match is always a big deal for Gally. Newt has a felling he isn’t telling him everything. “So, what happened? You lost two matches in a row now. Losing your touch?” Newt tries to joke a bit.

Gally looks frustrated at Newt. “I just lost focus for a bit. As I said no big deal. Just let it go.” He snaps.

Before Newt can say anything Gally has already walked away. _what’s up with him?_ Newt thinks. Seeing he is almost late for class, he doesn’t linger on it and goes to his class.

 

 

At the end of another boring day, the guys decide to have a drink at The Maze. They all look at Thomas hoping he can finally get them a discount, but he has to disappoint them. He hasn’t been working there long enough to have that privilege. Newt, Thomas, Minho, Aris and Ben all walk to The Maze. Gally is noticeably absent. Winston, Frypan and the girls already had plans and Alby is going to meet them there.

As they arrive they go to sit at a table and order their drinks. When Alby walks in, they wave him over. Alby is not alone though. Following him is a taller and slim guy with dark hair and brown eyes. They both sit down at the table and Ably introduces the guy as Nick.

“This wallplant finally decided to come out of his room and have some fun.” Ably jokes about Nick.

“First off all, it’s wallflower and secondly, when you are a senior Politics major, you don’t have that much time to have fun in between studying.” Nick said in a very proper voice.

All of the guys notice the proper voice and are a bit taken aback.

“I know it’s wallflower. It just sounds a bit gay.” Alby states.

Newt, Aris and Ben all look at Alby after this statement. Newt is the first to speak.

“What’s wrong with that? Being gay is normal, ya know.”

Alby looks apologetically at him. “I know. I didn’t mean anything by it. Nick just doesn’t seem to be the gay type and I didn’t want to insult him.” Alby tries to defuse the situation, but he fails as Newt just rolls his eyes at him.

“What do you mean ‘I’m not the gay type’? You know it’s not nice to use stereotypes to assume someone’s sexuality. Just because I don’t look gay doesn’t mean that I’m straight.” Nick said looking Bothered by his friend.

Alby sighs at this. “I know that. You don’t have to take everything people say as discriminating, you know. Sometimes people can say these things just to have a conversation, not to put people in boxes.”

Newt and Nick still look bothered by what their friend just said, but Thomas simply nods.

“It is true, you know.” Thomas starts. “Stereotypes do exist. Whether you want it or not. These stereotypes just come from a majority of people in certain boxes who act or look a certain way. Like the people you most often _notice_ to be gay are acting and dressing a certain way. You are allowed to talk about that. When you start treating people along their stereotype is when you are in the wrong. Then you are putting people in boxes.”

Everyone looks at Thomas a bit surprised. Again, Newt is the first one to speak.

“So, you are saying that you are allowed to just assume people are gay or straight just by the way they are dressed? So, you can just walk though a street looking at people and telling who ‘should’ be gay or straight?” Newt asked a bit annoyed. 

Thomas gives a nod, seemingly not faced about what Newt just said. “Yeah, you can. As long as you don’t start treating them like they are gay or straight before you know for certain. Looking at someone else, everyone has a preconception. That comes from our flight or fight instinct. You look at someone to determine a threat, which you do in the first second. It takes talking to someone to actually get to know them. So, if we would just start forgetting our prejudices and start talking to each other, the world would be so much better.” Thomas just simply explains.

Newt just huffs at Thomas, but says nothing. Nick looks kind of impressed.

“Are you studying Politics as well? You are a natural at explaining a point without offending some even when the topics makes it easy to be offended by.” Nick asked.

Thomas laughs at that. “Nope, I study Architecture. I just don’t like how people get offended so easily by everything these days even when people don’t mean anything by it.”

Nick still looks impressed. The tension dies down fast when the drinks arrive. The rest of the midday they talk about a lot of different things. Thomas, Newt and Nick get into a few discussions about touchy political subjects, but Newt just can’t win any argument with these two. Especially when they agree with each other and gang up on him.

After her shift is done, Rachel also joined the group, but she mostly just talks or kisses with Aris. Which apparently bother Newt quite a bit, but nobody says anything about it. Afterwards they all go back to their dorms.

 

 

Gally has been in his room alone the whole time the rest of the group is at The Maze. They had asked him if he would come as well, but he had told them he wasn’t feeling well. He feels just fine but when he heard Aris and Ben would also join and after his encounters with Minho and Newt, he really didn’t want to join them. So, he decided to just stay in his room and do some homework. When he sees a few Instagram posts from his friends at The Maze he can’t hold back a tear rolling down his cheek.

 

 

Newt and Thomas sit in their room when there is a knock on the door. Newt opens the door and Thomas is really surprised to see that all of their friends are there. Only Minho and Gally aren’t here. As Newt lets everyone in into their tiny room, Thomas just looks really confused. Newt sees this and starts laughing.

“Bloody hell, I forgot to tell you, didn’t I?” Newt said looking a bit ashamed. “We are planning a birthday party for Minho this weekend, but we don’t want him to know. So, I invited everyone here.”

Thomas looks less confused and more happy now. “Yeah, you forgot to mention that. So, when is his birthday?”

“It’s actually this Wednesday. He was born on 9-11, nut we are going to celebrate at The Maze on Saturday. He is turning 20 so we wanted to make it a big one.” Newt explains.

They are discussing everything they want to do for Minho’s birthday. Newt has to fill in Thomas on some things as he has no idea what they had already talked about. They are planning on ignoring Minho’s birthday on Wednesday until they surprise him that evening with a ticket to a special sports event in town that they just made up. This event will take place on Saturday and Newt will take him there. Instead of going to a sports event Newt will actually take him to The Maze where al of his friends will be waiting for a surprise party. They even got Marcus to light another bonfire. Normally he wouldn’t do this until next month.

After they have discussed every detail everyone but Newt and Thomas leave the cramped room again. Newt is smiling brightly. He is very exited that he can do this for his best friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just think Rachel and Aris a cute couple. and they will become even cuter.   
> Poor Gally. something is off about him, but he doesn't want to talk to people.  
> How do you think Minho will react to his friends after they 'forget' his birthday?  
> Feedback is apriciated as always.


	9. an unhappy birthday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that I have been MIA for a few days. it was crazy with exams. hopefully i will be able to go back to a somewhat regular schedule.

When Minho wakes up on Wednesday, he feels really happy. Today is his 20th birthday and he is really excited to celebrate it with his friends this evening. When he looks over to the other bed, he sees that Gally is already gone. He has been off these last couple of days, so Minho doesn’t pay that much attention to it. When he goes to get some breakfast, nobody seems to acknowledge that it is his birthday. Then again, he doesn’t really know any of the others on his floor. After breakfast, he gets ready to go to school.

When he arrives at school, he looks around to see if he can find any of his friends. When he sees Thomas, he walks up to him.

“Hey Thomas, how are you today?” Minho asked with a huge smile on his face.

Thomas looks at Minho. He really wants to wish him a happy birthday, but he promised Newt not to spoil the surprise. “Hey Minho, I am good today. How are you?”

Minho is a bit taken aback that Thomas didn’t wish him a happy birthday, but then again, he might not know because they only know each other for few weeks. Minho also doesn’t want to be fishing for anything, so he decides not to say anything. He will know soon enough, Minho thinks. “I am doing great today.” He said. “Do you have plans this evening?”

Thomas obviously can’t tell Minho his plans, so he makes something up. “Well, I don’t have work tonight. This is my only free night this week, so I was going to have a relaxed evening reading a book and catching up on some homework.”

Minho looks a little disappointed at that. “Oh, I wanted to invite you to go to The Maze tonight. I am going to ask the rest as well.”

Thomas looks a bit nervous. He still wants to keep the surprise obviously. “I am sorry Minho, but I just wanted to have a quiet evening today. Another time definitely.”

Minho’s face falls at that. “Oh, yeah, I understand. It’s okay.”

Before Thomas can say any more, Minho is already walking away, looking really sad. Thomas feels awful to make his friend feel so sad, but Newt assured him that Minho will forgive them after he knows the surprise.

 

 

The morning classes go by pretty quickly for Minho. When lunchtime comes around, he goes over to the canteen to look for his friends. When he sees them, he goes over to them with a smile on his face. He is exited to invite all of them to celebrate his birthday after school.

He walks up to their table and greets them.

His friends look up at him. All greeting him, but none of them seem to remember his birthday. Not even his best friend Newt. They never forget his birthday. They even remember some of the Korean holidays for him. They always celebrate those with him as well. How come they wouldn’t remember his birthday at all.

Thomas notices Minho’s face and how sad he looks and he feels awful.

Minho doesn’t want to push them into remembering his birthday either. He always felt that telling people it is your birthday is just fishing for love or something. He does want to invite them still for the celebration. _Even If they don’t remember my birthday, at least we can celebrate it still._ Minho thinks.

“Hey, Guys. I wanted to invite you all to come with me to The Maze after school. I want to have a fun day today.” Minho tries.

Newt looks at him also felling sorry doing this to his friend, but he holds it up. “Sorry Min, I already have plans after school. Another time.”

Minho looks disappointed and sad again. It gets even worse when everyone else says the same. Minho Is now near crying and he decides to leave.

Thomas had seen the tears forming in his eyes and he feels really awful. He looks at his friends and the also look sad for doing this. Newt and Thomas look at each other.

“He will forgive us for this after he knows. He will hate us for a moment, but then he will love us again.” Newt tries to encourage everyone again.

“I know, but he just looks so sad now. I feel awful.” Thomas said looking back to where Minho had walked of to.  “You know, Maybe I can make it a bit better for him.”

Newt looked at him. “You aren’t going to spoil the surprise, are you?”

Thomas tried to assure him. “No, not that. I told him that I didn’t have plans tonight, but that I wanted to have a relaxed night. Maybe, I could let him know that I am going to The Maze with him tonight. Then when it is time for the surprise, I can think of an excuse to take him with me to our living room.”

Newt thought about that for a moment looking at the rest. They all nodded at him. “I guess that could work. It would make him feel a bit better for now at least. You go and do that.”

Thomas smiled at his friend for being so understanding. And without saying another word he runs after Minho.

 

 

Minho is already on his way to the sports field when Thomas comes up behind him.

“Hey Minho.” Thomas calls after him. “Why don’t I come with you tonight. I guess I can have a night off another time.”

Minho looks at Thomas. He seems to lighten up a bit. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Thomas knows that Minho only says that because he doesn’t want to be a bother. He is always so selfless. “I care about you. Of course I want to.”

Minho smiles at him still looking sad though. “Thanks Thomas.”

They both go to their classes after lunch Is over.

Minho goes through the rest of the day still wondering how his friends all seem to have forgotten his birthday. _At least Thomas wants to go to The Maze with me._

After school Minho sends Thomas a text to ask when they will go. Thomas lets him know that he has a late class today and that he will pick him up at his dorm when he is done. So, Minho decides to go back to his dorm.

 

 

Thomas is sitting in his room with Newt when he gets a text form Minho to go to The Maze. He looks at Newt. “Minho is done with his classes and wants me to come to The Maze already.”

Newt thinks for a moment. “We aren’t done yet, so you need to delay him a bit.”

Thomas nods. “I will just text him that I have a late class then. I will pick him up when we are done then.”

 

 

Minho walks into his room to see Gally sitting on his bed. He is looking at his phone and he doesn’t notice that Minho just came in.

“Hey Gally, how are you doing?” Minho asked carefully.

Gally looks up at Minho. He looks sad but when he sees Minho, he tries to hide it in a smile. “Hey Minho, I’m okay. How are you today?”

Minho tries to hide his own sad feelings. “I’m okay as well, I guess.”

They stay silent for a moment. Then Gally starts talking. “About the other night. I’m sorry, I snapped at you. I was just feeling bad about losing my match.”

Minho look at him trying to figure out what to respond. “It’s okay, I understand that you were feeling bad.” He starts. “What I don’t understand is how you lost in the first place. You are always focused on wrestling. You have been off lately. What is going on?”

Gally looks away. “I haven’t been feeling well lately. It’s nothing really. It will pass.”

Minho want to ask more, but then there is a knock at the door. Minho goes to open it and he sees Thomas standing there.

Thomas smiles at him. “Ready to go?”

Minho looks back at Gally. “Gally, Thomas and I are going to The Maze, wanna join?”

Gally looks at Minho and then at Thomas. Thomas smiles widely and nods at him. He still feels off, but he decides to go anyway. The three of them walk out of the room when Thomas stops.

“Shit, I forgot my wallet. Can we stop by my room first so that I can get it?” Thomas asked.

Gally and Minho both nod and follow him.

 

 

When they arrive at the second floor, Thomas holds the door open so that Minho can go through and he walks towards Thomas’s room. When Gally wants to walk that way as well, Thomas holds him back for a moment. “Just stay behind for a moment. We have a surprise for Minho.” Thomas whispered.

Gally looks a bot confused, but he still nods and follows Thomas.

“I think I left it in the living room.” Thomas calls out to Minho.

Minho nods and heads towards the living room. As he enters, he looks around to see if he can find the wallet anywhere. Then Thomas comes t stand next to him and Gally stays back for a moment.

“I think I left it in here.” Thomas calls out a bit louder.

At that moment everyone jumps out of their hiding places shouting: “Happy Birthday!”

Minho looks at everyone in shock. He looks t Newt who is standing in the front. “You didn’t forget my birthday?” he said. He then looks at Thomas. “And you knew about it?” Then he looks though the room to the rest of his friends. “I really hate you guys. Do you know how miserable I felt today?”

Minho tries to look upset, but he fails because he loves the surprise they prepared for him. He walks into the living room and everyone hugs him and wishes him a happy birthday. Gally had also joined after they had jumped out and he also hugs Minho.

After all the birthday wishes are over, Frypan comes out of the kitchen holding a birthday cake that he had made. They sing for Minho and then the cut the cake.

After everyone had settled down eating cake, Newt goes over to Minho.

“So, I have another little surprise for you.” He said handing Minho a small box.

Minho looks at him trying to look mad still but failing. He takes the box and opens it. When he looks at its contents, he is a bit confused.

“There is a sports event going on Saturday. I thought, it would be a nice gift for you to go together.” Newt explains.

Minho forgets about ever being mad at Newt at that moment and just hugs him. After they let go there are some more of Minho’s friends that came with gifts, so he unwraps them all and thanks everyone for them.

Later that night they all settle down to watch the 9/11 memorial ceremony. It had happened on Minho’s second birthday. His parents were watching, just like the rest of America and even the world, the news unfold on through-out the morning and comforting others around them for the rest of the day. His birthday that year was celebrated a few days later as a result of that.

Even though none of them have been old enough to understand what was happening at the time (Alby being the oldest was only 3 at the time.) they still want to be sure to remember that day. They haven’t lost close relatives, but a few of them did lose family members. They still watch it to make sure that what happened on that day won’t be forgotten to make sure it won’t happen again.

After the ceremony is over, they talk about it for a moment until the party starts going again. As it is on Minho’s birthday, he is used to the sadness that hangs with it. Even though people can still celebrate on this day, the memorial ceremony always puts a little damper on it for a moment. Sometimes he wishes that he was born on a different day, but he does understand as he can still feel the emotion himself every time even though he hasn’t felt the impact it had in 2001.


End file.
